Hobby Oddities: It’s Academic Player Erasers

It’s Academic, Inc. has been around for over twenty years.  They make tons of supplies which can be used in a school or office environment.  Book covers, locker accessories, and scissors are just a small taste of what they’re known for.  Over the years, they’ve worked with all kinds of licensed brands to help sell their products.  At one time (it doesn’t look like it anymore) they had a deal with the MLBPA.  One of their products to come out of this deal was a line of Player Erasers.  These are exactly what they sound like.  Pencil erasers in the shape of your favorite baseball players.  The checklist features twenty players, which seems a lot more extensive than what you’d expect from a product such as this.

• Sammy Sosa
• Mark McGwire
• Derek Jeter
• Cal Ripken Jr.
• Mike Piazza
• Jeff Bagwell
• Craig Biggio
• Frank Thomas
• Greg Vaughn
• Ken Caminiti
• Bobby Bonilla
• Albert Belle
• Kenny Lofton
• Roberto Alomar
• Jim Thome
• Chuck Knoblauch
• Bernie Williams
• Paul O’Neill
• Alex Rodriguez
• Juan Gonzalez

Seeing that the deal was only with the MLBPA and not MLB, team names and logos had to be left off.  I see them as more of a novelty.  A good conversation piece to sit on your desk.  As far as functionality, I’m not 100% sure how well they worked as an eraser.  On the back of the package, they advise you to rub-off the portion of the eraser you plan to use on a piece of scratch paper first in order to remove the decorative coating.  Otherwise you’ll end up with streak marks.  Given the checklist, I’d say these were released in the late 90s.